Voice communications is currently the primary service provided by wireless network operators. Capabilities for providing mobile wireless data communication services, however, are beginning to be deployed on a relatively widespread basis and are expected by many to represent a significant area of growth in the years ahead. Providing applications for use on mobile devices is one significant area of wireless data services. Such applications may include instant messaging, games, news, and productivity enhancement tools. Different strategies for providing such applications have emerged. Much of the initial development focused on server-side execution of applications in which most of the processing power resides in the network operator's, or a third party's, servers. This strategy was employed, for example, by the wireless application protocol (WAP), which uses WAP browsers to receive and display content and applications that are generated by remote servers. User responses are then sent back through the network to the remote servers for processing and any further actions. Thus, there can be significant delays as information is sent back and forth between the mobile device and the remote server.
As processors have become smaller and cheaper, along with cheaper and more compact memories, it has become more feasible to increase the processing power on the mobile device, which enables applications to be implemented locally on the mobile device. Sun Microsystem's Java technology, which is implemented on mobile phones as J2ME, offers one possible way of implementing applications on mobile devices. In addition, Qualcomm has developed the Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) platform, which is described in further detail at http://www.qualcomm.com/brew. The Java and BREW technologies allow applications to be downloaded over the air and stored locally on a mobile device. This enables applications to run much faster and avoids many of the delays inherent in WAP technology. When downloading large applications and extensive amounts of content, however, there can still be delays that result from limited amounts of wireless bandwidth. Applications that comply with BREW development guidelines, for example, are required to provide some sort of status or progress dialogue (e.g., a pop-up window with a status bar showing percent complete, a hourglass icon, and the like) for the user if an operation such as downloading or connecting takes more than a few seconds.